Blogs decry illegal immigrant release

Conservatives in the blogosphere are up in arms over the government’s mass release of illegal immigrants ahead of the sequester, with critics charging it is President Barack Obama’s attempt to pressure Republicans to cave on the automatic cuts set to kick in Friday.

Hot Air’s Allahphundit wondered how “derelict” Obama would be willing to be in trying to strong-arm Republicans into reaching a deal.

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W.H.: Not involved in ICE decision to release detainees

“This makes me more enthusiastic about the sequester, just because now I’m curious to see how derelict he’s willing to be in his duties to in the name of putting political pressure on the GOP. Next up: Suspending TSA checkpoints at America’s airports, maybe?” the conservative blogger quipped. “Where else is he going to find two percent savings in three-plus trillion in spending?”

The criticism came after the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that ICE had released an unknown number of detainees.

Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro wrote, “These illegal immigrants will likely disappear from the law enforcement map. This is Barack Obama’s way of blackmailing the American people into supporting his calls for tax increases.”

Even on the left, liberal blogger The Daily Kos’s Keith Pickering called the release “clearly a shot across the bow” at the GOP.

“In what is clearly a shot across the bow at Republican obstructionism on the sequester, the Federal government today released hundreds of detained immigrants as a ‘cost saving’ measure,” Pickering wrote.

He added: “You can bet that if the sequester happens, those hundreds will turn into thousands. And you can bet that Republican activists are going to be calling their congresscritters in record numbers demanding that the GOP actually — govern the darned country for a change. Obama to GOP: Check. Your move.”

In a post dubbed “Never Let a Sequester Go to Waste,” The National Review Online contibutor Mark Krikorian — also the executive director for the Center of Immigration Studies — called the administration’s action “a great political move.”

“This is a great political move on the part of the White House: They can say to Republicans, ‘Look, the scary sequester is forcing us to release illegal aliens!” while also throwing a bone to Obama’s leftist supporters who feel “deep resentment over deportations,’” Krikorian wrote.

The Right Scoop posted an unattributed commentary that called the release “unbelievable.”

“This is unbelievable. The sequester hasn’t even kicked in and already the Obama admin is releasing hundreds of illegals from local jails and they plan on releasing thousands more, all because of the 2% sequester,” wrote The Right Scoop. “It’s really just unbelievable what this president gets away with. I bet he could order the deaths of the first born and the media would just ignore it. Ugh.”